Rhoda Ann Spafford

Rhoda's Story

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The Story

Rhoda's Story

researched by Penny Magnusson Hannum

Birth:  January 1st, 1838   |   female   |   in Pontiac, Quebec, Canada

Death:  June 25th, 1850   |   12 years old   |   17 miles beyond Salt Creek near the Platte River, Nebraska

Memorial:   Stone 1   |   left column   |   27th name

Rhoda Ann Spafford is the daughter of Horace Spafford from Vermont and Martha Stiles from Canada.

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Spafford family joined the Warren Foote Company to journey west to the Great Salt Lake Valley.

Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, prematurity, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. Cholera (a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water) invaded members of the company. Rhoda, her mother, her sister, Minerva, and two brothers Horace and Moroni fell victim of the illness. Rhoda's father, Horace, buried them all in one grave, wrapped in a feather bed and quilts, and placed large stones over the grave to keep wolves and other wild animals from disturbing their resting place.

submitted by The Daughters of Utah Pioneers and Days of ‘47